Facebook owner Meta to lay off 11,000 staff

Facebook owner Meta will lay off more than 11,000 of its staff in "the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history", boss Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday.

He said the cuts represented 13% of Meta's workforce and would affect its research lab focusing on the metaverse as well as its apps, which include Facebook, Instagram and messaging platform WhatsApp.

The tech industry is currently in a serious slump and several major firms have announced mass layoffs – Twitter's new owner Elon Musk fired half its staff last week.

"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," Zuckerberg said in a note to staff.

"I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted."

Ad-supported platforms such as Facebook and Google are suffering from advertisers' budget cuts as they struggle with inflation and rising interest rates.

Zuckerberg told staff he had expected the boost in e-commerce and online activity during the Covid pandemic to continue, but added: "I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that."

Meta's profits fell to US$4.4 billion (RM20.6 billion) in the last quarter, a 52% decrease year-on-year.